The present invention relates to a method of allocating elevator cars to operating groups of a destination call control, the elevator cars of an operating group executing travel tasks for specific zones.
An elevator installation for operation by zone is shown in European patent specification EP 0 624 540 B1. In the case of this elevator installation with immediate assignment of zone calls, the passenger traffic between at least one main stop and zones in a tall building is managed by an elevator installation comprising three elevators. Each elevator user entering the building passes a gate which is assigned to a zone and in which a sensor registers the elevator user. By selecting the corresponding gate, the elevator user communicates his/her desired zone to the elevator control without manually operating a call registering device. The signals of the sensors are transmitted to the control devices of the elevators, which control devices in turn communicate to the elevator user by means of a display device the respectively allocated elevator before the user leaves the selected gate.
A disadvantage of this device is that the elevator cars travel to specific, permanently allocated zones. To reach a specific floor, the user must change from the elevator car serving the zone to an elevator car serving the floor.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,969,304 shows an elevator installation with different elevator groups. A first elevator up can, on account of the physical configuration, only serve the lower floors. A second elevator group can, on account of the physical configuration, only serve the upper floors. A third elevator group serves the upper floors via an express zone, it being possible also to serve travel tasks of the second group.
A disadvantage of this elevator installation is that the elevators are not available for any and all travel tasks. The design of such an elevator installation is difficult and unpractical. The assignment of travel tasks to individual elevators largely corresponds to the physical configuration of the elevator group.
It is here that the present invention sets out to provide a remedy. The present invention provides a solution to avoiding the disadvantages of the known device and specifying a method which causes automatic adaptation of the elevator group to the traffic conditions in the building.
The present invention concerns a method of allocating a plurality of elevator cars to operating groups of a destination call control, the elevator cars of an operating group executing travel tasks for specific zones or floors, comprising the steps of: a. providing an operating group (EXP) for long-distance trips, an operating group (LOC) for local trips, and a group (FREE) for free elevator cars; b. dynamically allocating each elevator car of a plurality of elevator cars to one of the groups; and c. responding to an occurrence of a travel task by re-allocating one of the cars previously allocated to one of the groups to one of the EXP and LOC operating groups to perform the travel task.
The advantages achieved by the invention are essentially that the transportation performance of the elevator group is improved, and the number of stops as well as the waiting times and starting intervals are optimized. When, for example, up-peak traffic conditions prevail, all elevator cars can be allocated to zone (long-distance trip) operation. If, for example, in the upper area of the building inter-floor traffic is registered, some of the elevator cars are allocated to floor (local trip) operation. The inclusion of an elevator car in a particular operating group can be determined by parameters such as, for example, the waiting time of the elevator car. For elevator cars in floor operation, the waiting times can be selected to be shorter than for elevator cars in zone operation. If an elevator car is taskless, after expiry of a settable time it can be allocated to another operating group. An elevator car can be allocated to the operating group for long-distance trips, or to the operating group for local trips, or to the group for free elevator cars. An elevator car allocated to a specific operating group can temporarily also accept travel tasks of another operating group if this aids traffic optimization. With the method according to the invention an optimal allocation of each elevator car is achieved, efficient operation being assured during both stable traffic and peak traffic.
Elevator users need only communicate their destination floor to the control according to the present invention. The elevator users automatically have allocated to them the elevator car with the most optimal travel conditions. They do not need knowledge of the travel route and/or the most optimal allocation of the elevator car. The elevator car allocated takes them to their desired floor without changing. The elevator users need not know the allocation of the elevator cars to individual operating groups, since the destination calls are automatically allocated to the most favorable elevator car of the respective operating group. Based on the principle of cost calculation, the destination call control can execute an optimal allocation of the elevator cars to the individual operating groups according to the individual destination calls.